Columbia estuary sturgeon season closes early

Washington and Oregon have canceled Saturday’s sturgeon retention fishery in the Columbia River estuary to avoid exceeding the season’s harvest guideline.
In late May, the states adopted a six-day sturgeon retention season downstream of the Wauna power lines near Cathlamet, the first sturgeon retention in the lower Columbia River since 2013. The harvest guideline was 3,000 sturgeon between 44 and 50 inches fork length.
The final of the six days was to be Saturday.
John North of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife told a joint state hearing on Wednesday the sturgeon catch for first five days of the season is approximately 3,000 to 3,200 fish.
North estimated the catch on Saturday would be about 1,000 more sturgeon, thus far exceeding the season guideline.
Angling effort in the estuary exceeded expectations, he added.
“This was absolutely a 1,000-percent success down here,’’ said Butch Smith, president of the Ilwaco Charter Association.
Smith said there was more fishing activity in the first few days of retention than in the three previous months of catch and release.
“I’ve gotten people back with me who I lost three or four years ago with the closure,’’ said Mark Charlton of Charlton Charters of Warrenton, Ore. “Our community was booming for a change.’’
“It’s a shame we couldn’t get it started in May and last longer,’’ said Ron Roler, Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
North said sturgeon retention seasons in the lower Columbia and lower Willamette rivers will be addressed later in the year after preliminary results of 2017 population research are available.
Bonneville pool — Sturgeon retention in the Bonneville pool of the Columbia River will be open June 23.
Bonneville pool has a split winter-summer sturgeon retention season.
Anglers kept 96 sturgeon between Jan. 1 and March 25 in the winter portion, and 85 fish on Saturday’s summer portion.
North said the combined sport catch of 181 sturgeon leaves 144 remaining on the Bonneville pool sport allocation.
June 23 is a Friday. North said a weekend day in June can produce catches as high as 220 sturgeon, thus the decision to open fishing on a Friday.
Tribal salmon fishing — The four treaty tribes will begin netting Monday for summer chinook, sockeye and steelhead in Bonneville, The Dalles and John Day pools.
The tribes will net from 6 a.m. Monday through 6 p.m. June 22 and 6 a.m. June 26 through 6 p.m. June 29.
Biologist Stuart Ellis of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said the tribes are projected to catch 9,600 summer chinook, 4,200 sockeye and 200 steelhead during the two periods.
State-tribal management agreements allocate the four tribes 17,100 summer chinook and 13,895 sockeye this year, Ellis said. There is no specific harvest limit on steelhead, but few are caught in the tribal summer season, he added.